1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to methods and systems for communicating and controlling data in a network. More specifically, the invention relates to managing and controlling incoming telephone calls to a network when subscribers to the network do not have multiple telephone lines in the network.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the current explosion of wireless technologies and the implementation of sophisticated wireless networks, new wireless services are constantly being offered to wireless subscribers that allow the subscribers to take full advantage of advanced communications over the network. Many of these services require that a telephone call be placed to the subscriber so that the subscriber can access the service through the network. There has thus developed an acute need in the art for ways to manage these incoming telephone calls and ensure that the subscriber receives all of the services that he or she has subscribed to and that are provided by the network.
Typically, a subscriber to a wireless network that is receiving services therefrom only has one line or telephone number through which it can access the network and receive services. However, it will be recognized that at any one time, more than one telephone call, including voice calls, may be attempting to contact the subscriber through the network. Additionally, as service offerings proliferate in wireless networks, it is envisioned that more than one service may attempt to access the subscriber at any one time.
For example, the FAX machine has become a ubiquitous piece of equipment in the office environment. Most businesses and many home users employ FAX machines so that they can stay in communication with business associates, relatives and other people. In fact, FAX services have become an integral part of the plethora of Internet and wireless services that are now available. In fact FAX services in the wireless environment are already readily available to subscribers and so the aforementioned problems have arisen.
Prior approaches to solving these problems have been proposed. For example, separate telephone lines apart from voice telephone lines may be provided to a subscriber that wishes wireless access to FAX machines. However, this is an expensive solution especially when the network over which the FAX signals will be sent is a wireless network. Therefore, it may be desirable to allow FAX and voice signals to be sent over a single channel with one telephone number. In order to accomplish this goal, it will be appreciated that if the user is not available at the telephone, the FAX call may be missed, or if the user is using the phone for voice communications, the FAX call will not go through. A method for overcoming these problems should therefore be devised.
Other prior art approaches to address these issues have relied on detecting a FAX versus a voice call and alerting the user when a FAX call is coming in. The alert may be in the form of a web page sent to the user. In the area of cordless phones which have base units, when the base units include FAX machines the base units may be provided with functionality to differentiate the FAX call from the voice call without interrupting or otherwise alerting the user of the cordless phone. Voice and text storage systems also exist in the art wherein text, such as a FAX, may be stored in a user's mailbox in the system.
None of the aforementioned solutions adequately provide methods and systems for FAX communications continuously to subscribers with only one telephone number for FAX and voice calls. Nor do these solutions automatically store and forward FAX transmissions to a subscriber over a single telephone line when the subscriber is occupying the line with a voice phone call. Moreover, the prior methods and systems for sending FAX signals over a single telephone line do not adequately identify FAX transmissions or alert the subscriber that a FAX has been or will be sent.
There thus exists a long-felt need for methods which store and forward incoming telephone calls when only a single telephone line is available for multiple incoming telephone calls. The methods and systems should identify whether the call is a voice call or some other type of call and notify the user that another type of call FAX has been received. Additionally, it would be desirable if the methods and systems automatically and continuously accepted incoming telephone calls even when the subscriber is using the single line for a voice call. These needs have not heretofore been achieved in the art.